Two youths were arrested by the Mumbai Crime Branch's anti-human trafficking unit team for allegedly raping a 12-year-old minor girl, who had ran away from home. According to a report by Times of India, the girl had seeked shelter in a park in Khopar Khairane. She was studying in sixth standard and was unable to attend her term exams due to the death of her father last year. The girl ran away from home on November 22 after her mother, who worked in a beauty parlour and was taking her grandmother to the hospital, refused to let her accompany them.

The two accused, who were identified as Mithun Kailash Mhatre, 26 and Amit Naresh Veta, 27, found her at the park on November 24 and took her back to Veta's residence, where to took turns to rape her. She was then dropped at Vashi railway station and took a bus to her maternal aunt's home in Nerul's Sarsole Village.

She was found after her mother, a resident of Nerul's Shirawane village, lodged a police complaint. Cops found her at her maternal aunt's residence and she was handed over to the Nerul Police, where she narrated her ordeal.

The police then scouted the area surrounding the Nerul Garden to look for potential suspects. After narrowing down to 10 suspects, the investigators got their mobile numbers. One of them had saved the numbers on his cellphone, due to which their photographs were obtained from their WhatsApp profiles. The girl was able to recognise them from these pictures and the police swiftly arrested Mhatre after his car was traced. Mhatre led the cops to his accomplice Veta, who was arrested on November 25. Both were remanded in police custody till December 10.